happy meteorological rodent day
Wednesday, Feb. 02, 2005,
My dad told me, when I was little, the legend of the groundhog. He carefully explained that if the groundhog saw his shadow, there would be six more weeks of winter...But if he didn't, winter would only last another 45 days.
Beads...well. I got to the bottom of the "wrong beads issue", but it is a non-problem, as the client really likes the beads that were sent and wants me to go ahead and use them.
I spent all evening on D's birthday gift, and was very pleased with the result. After rifling through my bead box, I came up with a pretty good theme for her--swirled oval beads in a lovely spring green pearlescent finish, accented tiny gold rounds, larger, fluted gold rounds and gold heshi spacers. More of the same for the earrings, stacked on a paddle-head gold pin, and suspended from a ball stud w/ drop loop in gold. Actually, what took me forever was getting the bead sequence and pin combination right on the earrings.
Once I had that, the actual assembly of the earrings went fairly quick, as did the layout and stringing of the necklace. I ran it on a double strand of stretchy cord, as D has a problem with the clasps always ending up in front on her necklaces. This way she can slip it over her head, and not worry about a clasp. I did offer to re-string it for her if she preferred one, but she liked it this way.
She was tickled with the color, as well, and as she is a more formal type of person, I think the dressiness of the pearlescents and gold suited her well.
The downside was what all that, on top of a full day's keyboard work, did to my hands. Oh, sweet zombie jesus. I was up from 3:00 am onwards this morning, with the pain running the gamut from severe to excruciating. I tried ice packs, changing the position of my hands, and even took three (forbidden) Motrin. I finally got the pain subdued and was almost asleep again when Raji started to cry. She was out in the living room having one of her night terrors. I called to her, but she couldn't wake up. I had to go out to her and hold her so she'd stop whining and shaking, poor doggy. By then, it was pretty much stare at the ceiling till the alarm goes off at five...but I gotta get some rest one of these nights, or I am going to die.
Oh, me-oh-my. Boss Man isn't making this easy. He wants me for that damned job, and is testing the fuck out of me. Eavesdropping on my conversations to see how I'm handling situations and people. Giving me management-type assignments to see how I react, and how well I perform. Making me cover, again,
for the Absent One.This is the guy who told me last week: "I would never try to push you into a job you didn't want."
Oh, really.
Then why do I have his handprints on my back?
Gym Report:27.00 minutes
1.52 miles
203 calories
Yeah. Pretty good. And even better when you consider I had to work even harder to make that, after I had to re-adjust the computer on the treadmill to account for those Three Pounds I Lost This Week!! Back on track. Eyes on the prize. Etc. For the record, I'm at 261 now.
Spouse didn't get very far while cooking dinner last night. He was finishing browning the ground sirloin when I got home, and then...he just kind of...wandered off. I ended up making the sauce, and cooking the rest of the meal. Gee, honey! Thanks! He took the dog for a long walk yesterday after he came home, to try and cool himself down. And that's about all he was good for, as far as I can see.
I can't really say much, because he was very upset about it all, and needed the time to chill out. But I can't help but think about every time I'm home sick, or for a 'mental health day', or just have a day off...I always get something done. Even when I swear I'm not going to do a goddam thing.
Every day of my life, I accomplish something. I don't know how you could be happy, or even live with yourself, otherwise. And every time I sit down, I see something that needs doing, and everything that needs doing leads to a half-dozen other things that need doing, and that's how my life rolls along. (Maybe if it stopped rolling, I'd stop living?)
At the end of the day, something has been tested, earned, written up, written down, cooked, washed, cleaned, delivered, created, resolved, answered, repaired, arranged, bought, put away, thrown away or located.
Because I did that thing that I, or someone else, felt needed to be done.
So even when he's depressed, and worried, and sad, and hurting...yes. I kind of expect him to get something done.
But that's just me.
I had to get my photo taken yesterday, for a new ID badge at work. I was dreading it, actually--I haven't had a new one done in years, and mostly because of how bad the last one came out. But after really looking at that damned thing, I just said t'heckwidit. Anything has to be better than continuing to show this
"look at the bloated corpse they pulled out of the pond", morgue photo every day.To my surprise, the ID folks had updated their equipment, and they have a digital camera now. I was able to get a picture that only looks bad because it is of me. I had the option to preview and have it retaken, if necessary, but they did quite a decent job on the first try. When I get my new badge on Friday, I'm thinking of burning the old one in a solemn ceremony. Or maybe just shredding it.
Reading: "The Last Time They Met", by Anita Shreve.
Listening: XM Radio, "Fred". (Bronski Beat, The Smiths, Pretenders, etc. )
Beading: Birthday gift complete, and ready to start on the boot anklet.